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Eleven years after her daughter's murder, Sharon Ord McPhillips knows better than to look for closure in the booking photos.

Yes, authorities in Hardwick, Vt., on Wednesday arrested 43-year-old Phillip G. Barr, the second man wanted for the murder of McPhillips' 19-year-old daughter, Tara Ord Sidorovich, in Punta Gorda, Fla., in October 2001.

And, yes, long since the days of waiting turned to weeks, to months, to years, to a decade, that arrest came just 19 days after David Ray McMannis, 39, was taken into custody in Cumberland, Md., for Tara's murder as well.

But while the results of more than a decade's worth of investigation provide a welcome "relief" for McPhillips, "closure" simply cannot describe how the mother of the slain 19-year-old West Scranton High School graduate felt on Thursday.

"I don't usually use the word 'closure,' because I know the pain will always be there," McPhillips said. "But it does give you something else, though, to know that there's finally a step toward justice for my Tara. That's big for me."

Vanished

It had been about 14 months since she moved to Punta Gorda, Fla., with her mother when Tara sat at home alone waiting for the septic tank repairmen to arrive on Oct. 1, 2001.

The 19-year-old West Scranton High School basketball cheerleader had set her sights southward in August 2000 with plans to earn a degree at Edison College and pursue a career in crime scene investigation.

But on that day, the septic tank needed to be fixed. So she waited for Phillip G. Barr, the owner-operator of ABC Septic Services, and his employee, David McMannis, to show up.

"They had a contract. Barr owned the company. He got McMannis to help him," said Bob Carpenter, public information officer for the Charlotte County, Fla., Sheriff's office.

"She disappeared the day that they were supposed to be there," he said.

Missing-person posters went up.

Search crews walked between the palm and pine trees in the woods near the West Scranton girl's new home.

They even pumped out septic tanks throughout the county after learning that two ABC Septic Service employees were the last to see her alive.

Nothing.

Until July 12, 2002.

There, not seven miles from her home, Tara's skeletonized remains lay amongst the palm trees in a rural area of Charlotte County.

For days detectives did the work Tara had hoped to one day do herself: scouring the scene of the grisliest of crimes.

Once they finished, they left a note: "We won't forget. From the Major Crimes Unit."

Investigators were confident at first, stating publicly that they were "interested" in certain people and expected a "good ending" in the case - the arrests of Barr and McMannis.

"We were all hoping to find Tara alive," Lt. Jim Kenville of the sheriff's office said in 2002. "I think everybody's taking it a little more personal and it makes everyone work a littler harder to bring the people that did this to justice."

The major crime unit did its work, culled its evidence and knew they had their men - "we just didn't have enough to make it stick," Carpenter, the public information officer, said Thursday.

"There was not enough evidence at that time to say that they had done it," Carpenter said.

Cold case

As time passed, more major cases opened and the unit tasked with handling them moved on.

By December 2003, the sheriff's position had become vacant and so then-Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Bill Cameron to the post and the new sheriff made a promise on an old case.

"He promised her mother that he would stay with this â¦ So he brought all the best of the best in and they have been looking and relooking. I think he said there have been 12 boxes of testimony," Carpenter said.

Slowly but surely, they got closer.

Certain individuals' stories varied from the sworn statements they had made previously, among them Barr's ex-girlfriend, Linda Fay Dille , 46, of Punta Gorda, was charged last week with two felony counts of perjury.

"She made statements again and they were contrary to what she originally reported," Carpenter said.

Ultimately, the investigators bolstered their case to the point that they felt it strong enough to take to a grand jury last month.

Finally, after years of knowing, they got what they needed: indictments on first-degree murder charges against Barr and McMannis.

Information on the motive behind Tara's murder was not available Thursday.

The smiling, blonde-haired Invaders cheerleader would have been four days from her 31st birthday on Oct. 26, the day authorities arrested McMannis in Cumberland, Md., for killing her weeks before her 20th birthday.

He now sits in the Charlotte County Jail without bond, according to a press release.

About three weeks later, on Wednesday U.S. Marshals working with information from the Charlotte County Sheriff's office cold case unit found Barr at the 68 Pine Drive home in Harwick, Vt., where he had been living with a woman.

He ran out the back door as marshals approached the home, according to the release. There he found more marshals waiting for him around back and surrendered.

He is now awaiting extradition to Charlotte County, Fla., on a warrant for first-degree murder. It was not clear Thursday when he would be extradited.

Gratitude

Not long after, McPhillips' phone rang. It was cold case detectives on the line with the good news.

"We went from all these years and then the cold case guys came in and they changed it for us. Today, 11 years, and the guys are arrested and we're very happy about that," McPhillips said Thursday.

As the case got colder over the years, McPhillips moved back to West Scranton and went on with a life that had "changed dramatically."

"It's been very horrible. It really has," she said.

But, only in the last three weeks, all that has changed.

It has been more than 10 years since the memorial service for Tara at the Solfanelli-Fiorillo Funeral Home on North Main Avenue.

But on Monday, at 6 p.m., McPhillips and her family and friends will gather again in memory of Tara at the Tripp Park baseball field.

The time for mourning has passed. The candlelight vigil at the field Tara once played softball on as a little girl will be a time to show gratitude for the support McPhillips' family has received since Tara's untimely passing.

"We have a lot of love and support, our family, and we're very grateful for that," McPhillips said.

domalley@timesshamrock.com, @domalleytt

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